Saturday's high noon matchup between Texas and Ohio State is a monster matchup as the college football season kicks off in full force. Two decorated programs, one coming off a national championship and the other featuring a Manning making his first start at quarterback has all the makings of an instant classic. The only thing separating this from being a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle is a few rogue voters but by any metric this titanic clash has been highly anticipated.
Pundits have tried to contextualize the magnitude of the Week 1 tilt all summer but none of have gone as far as ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. was willing to go on Thursday's Get Up.
"Forty-eight years I've been covering college football," Kiper said. "Never remember a game as anticipated as this one."
"48 years I've been covering college football ... never remember a game as anticipated as this one."
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) August 28, 2025
—@MelKiperESPN on Arch Manning and Texas vs. Ohio State pic.twitter.com/cOyAXKxFDO
That's Kiper's truth so there's no reason to argue. Even though the Notre Dame-Florida State Game of the Century back in 1993 comes to mind as a contender. So do multiple Alabama-LSU games in recent history that decided national championships. Or the Michigan-Ohio State game in 2006 when those two were atop the poll.
Kiper's excitement is buoyed by Arch Manning, one of the more compelling figures to exist in the sport in a long, long time. Considering his main job of dissecting future NFL talent, one can argue why the insider is so amped.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mel Kiper Jr. Makes Extremely Bold Claim About Texas-Ohio State Excitement.
